AG Kaul: DOJ releases new data on crimes and sex offenses for 2018

May 2, 2019

MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul today announced that 2018 data on offenses, arrests, and related data reported by law enforcement agencies across the state is now available.

“Additional data on crime can help us better understand the public-safety issues our communities are facing,” said Attorney General Kaul. “By making evidence-based decisions, we can make our criminal-justice system more effective.”

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) publishes interactive data dashboards containing information collected through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, using definitions of offenses and arrests as defined by the FBI. These dashboards include offenses by agency, arrests by agency, statewide arrestee demographics, and offense and arrest trends by agency over time. Additional incident-level information regarding sex offenses is also included in an interactive sex offense dashboard. Data from 2018 was added to the dashboards at the end of April, and now includes information from 2014-2018.

Data is provided by law enforcement, and additional information regarding data notes and methodology is also included with the dashboards. The data can be utilized by researchers, policy makers, criminal justice agencies, and the community to understand trends in reported crime and arrest data by type and geographic area.

The dashboards were developed by the DOJ Bureau of Justice Information and Analysis (BJIA), which works to inform criminal justice policy and practice by conducting objective research, analysis, and evaluation of information. The original dashboards were first launched in 2016, and additional dashboards developed by BJIA have been added since then.